Diverse Joy

We start this July episode discussing joy, including: Will’s is a trip he took with Roman and friends to Skywalker Ranch! Amber’s is “dopamine dressing,” in which you dress to bring yourself, and others, joy - usually through mixing patterns and colors (it’s kind of maximalist).
This episode’s discussion topic is Avoiding Demotivational Traps — there are many ways people try to face problems like racism and disparities that end up resulting in less motivation, rather than more motivation, to solve the problems. Many involve misusing “educational media” to achieve catharsis or avoid seeing or facing real problems (”entertainment” and “educational media” can certainly mix and overlap, when we say “educational media” in this capacity, we mean the kind of movies or books where even the marketing is trying to make sure you “know” this is some kind of “inspirational” piece that you “should get something out of,” even though many pieces of “entertainment” can also accomplish the same thing - they just tend to be more subtle about it).
Amber shares the idea of Sankofa (a word from Akan, one of the many languages spoken in Ghana), which involves having your feet firmly facing forward, to make positive progress to the future, but also looking back to remember the past, both to learn from it and to bring forward what was good.
During Story Time, Will shares a story about someone who got censored by her work place, with them saying she could not be a guest on Diverse Joy, because they were afraid of federal backlash for the show focusing on DEI. The more positive story was about another popular podcast, Stop Podcasting Yourself, doing a very nice job with diversity among its guests (having women, people of color, and folks with disabilities make up a large portion of its guest list).
This episode’s Question is “Why are ‘checklist’ approaches to DEI bad?” Checklist approaches can give a “catharsis” effect–you’ve finished a thing, check it off–that demotivates people, making diversity and inclusion efforts something that you “get over with” rather than an approach that is about maintaining inclusion over time with ongoing effort. 
Our Bias Habit-Breaking Skill is Broadening Your Input via Increasing Representation in your Social, Physical, and Digital Environments. This takes many forms, such as increasing diversity of speakers you invite to your organizations (Social), in whose pictures or art is displayed in your work or home (Physical), or the picture on your website (Digital). 
The skills segment leads to an excellent chat about Amber’s church and how her pastor does a great job of Increasing Representation in invited speakers and even in different representations of Jesus found throughout the church.
Amber’s joyful recommendation is KPop Demon Hunters, a movie that became a cultural sensation over the year. It’s a fun, goofy, musical action movie set in a reality centered around (generations of) K-Pop musical group(s) that must stop demons from entering reality through music! (Amber got Will and Eric Roman watch it soon after we recorded this episode, and they agree that it is fantastic!)

Dr. Cox’s book is available for preorder! The publisher is University of California Press, and the full title is Overcoming Bias Habits: An Evidence-Based Guide to Creating a Joyfully Inclusive World.

Check your small local bookstores!

From Amazon: https://a.co/d/iwnakbM

From Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/overcoming-bias-habits-william-t-l-cox-phd/1148276458?ean=9780520410428

We now have merch! Buy some to support the show at https://www.biashabit.com/store

Follow Diverse Joy on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, Threads, and Bluesky.

It’s June, which means it is Pride Month, so we invited a special guest–drag queen Cynthia Mooseknuckle, a Madison legend–to talk drag and the LGBTQ+ community!
For “What’s bringing us joy?” Cynthia’s is hot beverages in the morning, to help awaken the senses! Amber’s is attending Vogue Balls in Portland. And for Will, it‘s his recent trend of discovering new (and old) music albums every morning.
This episode’s discussion topic is the history and contemporary use of drag performance as both an art form and a form of community and protest. Cynthia shares how drag has been a way to bolster her self-confidence, both in and out of drag. The conversation touches on acceptance and self-acceptance, authenticity, the influx of competitiveness into drag, and related topics and tangents (it’s a great conversation)! 
In Story Time, Cynthia shares a negative story about drag is–sometimes–more exploitative and exclusionary as it has become more mainstream, competitive, commodified, and profit-motivated. For her more positive story, she shares about going back to her small Midwestern hometown to be celebrated and honored in drag!
This episode’s question is about whether it is difficult to remain sober within the drag community. Cynthia shares her personal journey with sobriety.
This episode’s bias habit-breaking skill is to Broaden Your Input via Genuine Connections. Making friendships with people different from you can help push back against biases in your mind. While talking about genuine connections and friendships, the discussion taps into recent tragic experiences with persecution of immigrant communities in the United States.
As always, we close out the episode with a joyful recommendation. Whenever we have a guest, we let them give theirs, and Cynthia’s is “retro gaming,” or playing classic video games, which can bring in good feelings of nostalgia and comfort that can bolster your mental health! She recommends classic Pokémon games, in particular. (Cynthia Mooseknuckle’s name actually comes from the character of Cynthia, introduced in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.)

Dr. Cox’s book is available for preorder! The publisher is University of California Press, and the full title is Overcoming Bias Habits: An Evidence-Based Guide to Creating a Joyfully Inclusive World.

Check your small local bookstores!

From Amazon: https://a.co/d/iwnakbM

From Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/overcoming-bias-habits-william-t-l-cox-phd/1148276458?ean=9780520410428

We now have merch! Buy some to support the show at https://www.biashabit.com/store

Follow Diverse Joy on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, Threads, and Bluesky.

For this late-spring episode, Amber and Will dressed up to express their love of the Netflix series Bridgerton. 
Will’s shares that his joy is his recent ADHD diagnosis (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). While Amber’s joy is her job as a full-time pediatric clinical psychologist and the lives she can impact through that work, which includes doing ADHD testing and being able to tell people, “yes, that’s what this is,” or, “no, it’s this other thing” and helping folks get the treatment they need. 
The main discussion topic of this episode is learning about ADHD and, more broadly, neurodiversity. Amber discusses what ADHD is (including how ADD, attention deficit disorder, which you’ve probably also heard of, is now classified as one of three types of ADHD rather than being its own thing), some of how it is diagnosed, how it shows up in people’s lives, and some coping mechanisms–including another Amber Acronym: BOOST. As people with ADHD diagnoses themselves, Will and Amber both pull on their own life experiences as well as the research and clinical literature to discuss all of the above.
During Story Time, there are stories related to testing for ADHD, and how an early diagnosis can be helpful for avoiding addiction issues later in life (because proper treatment will help with how the brain’s reward system handles an ADHD person’s dopamine requirements).
This episode’s Question is, “What is neurodiversity?” (Hint: It’s an umbrella term for conditions that are neurodevelopmental and neurological in their etiology.)
Will shares two Bias Habit-Breaking Skills this month: Considering Situational Explanations for Behavior and Doing Perspective-Taking. Both of which are handy tools for helping to reduce bias and create inclusion.
Amber and Will close out the episode with the joyful recommendation of the hilarious and musical TV show that touches on many great diversity and mental health topics, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend! (It acknowledges that its title is a bit problematic.) (If you were expecting the recommendation to be Bridgerton, and are confused about why it isn’t - go give season 1, episode 5 a listen.)

Dr. Cox’s book becomes available for preorder! The publisher is University of California Press, and the full title is Overcoming Bias Habits: An Evidence-Based Guide to Creating a Joyfully Inclusive World.

Check your small local bookstores!

From Amazon: https://a.co/d/iwnakbM

From Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/overcoming-bias-habits-william-t-l-cox-phd/1148276458?ean=9780520410428

We now have merch! Buy some to support the show at https://www.biashabit.com/store

Follow Diverse Joy on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, Threads, and Bluesky.

In this episode, we invite special guest Jack Pepple, a member of the Santee Sioux Tribe, to share some of his experiences and perspectives related to his Native American heritage. 

Jack’s joy is that April is National Poetry Month, and he shares with us a delightful, uplifting, spiritual poem by Joy Harjo called, “For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet“. Joy Harjo is an award-winning poet and was the first Native American Poet Laureate of the United States. Amber’s joy is Pitch Black, a Black entrepreneurship organization that lifts up Black businesses and nonprofits across the U.S.! Will’s is a train trip he took with producer Eric Roman, Jack, and other friends, in which they crossed the country and collectively wrote their own murder mystery.

In a combined Story Time–Discussion Topic segment, Jack shares his personal story related to people around him trying to erase or deny his Native American heritage, how that affected him and how he reconnected with his identity over time. It provides an excellent framework to also discuss some of the historical context related to Native heritage erasure and redemption, and many related topics like reservations, media portrayals of native folks, alcoholism and substance abuse stereotypes and realities, assimilation and mandatory religious conversion to Christianity, two-spirit people, and more! Our connections to our identities provide a sense of stability and strength that buffers our well-being, and when an identity is erased or stigmatized, we can lose those beneficial effects. We also discuss land acknowledgments (e.g., we record the podcast in Madison, WI, which is situated on unceded land from the Ho Chunk nation). 

This episodes question is “Is it okay to say ‘Indian,’ versus ‘Native American’ or ‘Indigenous’?” The answer: It depends, and you should ask the person it impacts.

This episode’s bias habit-breaking skills are two tools to help overcome bias habits, to Detect/Reflect/Reject Bias and to Rehearse Replacements.

Jack’s joyful recommendation is the novels of award-winning Blackfeet Native American horror author Stephen Graham Jones. One book Jack particularly recommends is My Heart is a Chainsaw, in which a young Indigenous girl who loves horror movies finds herself in a horror movie-like scenario when a slasher attacks people in her community! It is a fast-paced, intriguing offering for any horror fans out there!

 

Dr. Cox’s book becomes available for preorder! The publisher is University of California Press, and the full title is Overcoming Bias Habits: An Evidence-Based Guide to Creating a Joyfully Inclusive World.

Check your small local bookstores!

From Amazon: https://a.co/d/iwnakbM

From Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/overcoming-bias-habits-william-t-l-cox-phd/1148276458?ean=9780520410428

We now have merch! Buy some to support the show at https://www.biashabit.com/store

Follow Diverse Joy on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, Threads, and Bluesky.

Amber and Will are dressed up as Daisy and Donald Duck for Disney Bounding month! 
Will’s joy this month is his new routine of charging his phone in his kitchen at night, which has significantly transformed his sleep and his mental health all day long by not having his phone in the bedroom with him at night. Amber’s joy is the book “Romanticize Your Life,” which gives her daily recommendations to make her life more whimsical and fun!

This month’s discussion topic is gender bias, which taps into how we treat kids differently based on gender and teach them gender, how women get taken less seriously in several domains, including science, and how people often devalue femininity or things associated with it (a problem some researchers call “femmephobia”). We also talk about the “man vs bear” scenario that went viral last year and the “pink tax,” in which products marketed at women often cost more. They also discuss the gender similarities hypothesis, which argues (with LOTS of data) that men and women tend to be more similar than different on most psychological variables. 

During story time, the first story involves an instance of people teaching gender norms, and the more positive story involves women’s sports being given more prominence and respect. 
This episode’s listener question is “What is the Bechdel test?” The Bechdel test is a litmus test related to movie/TV portrayals of women.

This episode’s habit-breaking skill is to favor mindfulness over blunt, ineffective tools. Sometimes people try to bluntly shove away bias in their minds, which backfires. Rather than that, it is better to be mindful of bias and accept the reality that bias sometimes comes to mind, then you can work on making sure it does not affect your behavior. Mindfulness is a powerful tool in changing bias.

Amber’s joyful recommendation is the play, “& Juliet!” It’s a diverse, nostalgic, empowering jukebox musical, exploring what would have happened if Juliet of “Romeo and Juliet” had lived on after the play. 

 

Dr. Cox’s book becomes available for preorder! The publisher is University of California Press, and the full title is Overcoming Bias Habits: An Evidence-Based Guide to Creating a Joyfully Inclusive World.

Check your small local bookstores!

From Amazon: https://a.co/d/iwnakbM

From Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/overcoming-bias-habits-william-t-l-cox-phd/1148276458?ean=9780520410428

We now have merch! Buy some to support the show at https://www.biashabit.com/store

Follow Diverse Joy on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, Threads, and Bluesky.